More post-game quotes

“I thought we played a really good first period; unlucky goal. Really, for about 8-10 minutes of that second period, that’s where we struggled and they’re a good enough team to capitalize on those situations. We gave up some odd-man rushes. A bad change cost us a goal. So that 8-10, 11 minutes of the second period, that was the worst part of our game. But other than that I thougt we put in some good minutes.”

On the third period:

“We’ve been doing it all year long. We just couldn’t get things done around the net. We had some chances. Some of our best chances we shot wide. We just couldn’t finish around the net. So we just keep battling on here. That’s all.”

On the second goal:

“It’s a bad change and we get caught with an odd-man situation.”

“In that middle stanza, the middle part of the second period, we’re too deep with our third guy. We’re trying to crawl back into it, trying to force them, and they did a lot of flipping and flying the zone. And they in-directed a lot of pucks. They’re a pretty good team and we lost our third guy there on some pinches and I thought we over-committed where we were three flat in their end zone and they just threw it by us.”

“They’re a good hockey club. They’re on a run. Their goaltender’s been playing well, so you give them credit. They’re a good team and they’re oportunistic. Where they had chances to get us, they got us. And I thought they defended pretty well, too.”

On Gaborik’s performance:

“I’m afraid to say anything about Gabby’s game because it turns nutso around here. So we’ll just generalize as far as the team. I’m not going to talk about individual players. He scored a goal, eh?”

On the line juggling.

“Some guys are fighting it. Some guys I thought were playing better than others, so we switched them It happens.”

Here’s the rub — the last game these two teams played was the game where the refs disgraced the league. So what happens in the first period tonight? Crosby slew foots Callahan and — guess what — Callahan gets the penalty.

How can that not be, if not THE story of this game then a very very important aspect of it, esp. given the recent Campbell email controversy, to the people covering this team? It is astonishing.

I fully agree with Tort’s assesment of the game. I was saying the exact same things to my brother up in the blue seats and on the way out of the Garden. Some times you play pretty well for 50 minutes, but against the good teams it’s the other 10 minutes that cost you the game. Such was the case tonight.

Most every season? Two times in the last 15+ seasons is not most every season. There’s been one team that has maintained a consistent level of excellence in that time period and that’s Detroit.

The Rangers are not a contending team this year and they probably won’t be next year either. Most of the people that regularly contribute to this blog have accepted that.

The Pens are far from a guarantee from reaching the finals as last year should have proven that the better team on paper isn’t going to win every time. The Pens window to win is now. Even as early as next season they will have about $51mn tied up in 13 players. They have 8 impending unrestricted FA and 2 restricted FAs amongst the forwards alone with just 5 under contract. The core is signed for long term, but you have to wonder whether the complimentary pieces are strong enough to support the team should Crosby and Malkin’s production begin to decline.

The annual trade deadline deals that the Pens have made the past few seasons has put a substantial dent in the Pens farm system and finishing higher in the standings has left the Pens with weaker organizational depth than in years past.

There’s a lot of compelling evidence that the Pens have 1 or 2 seasons left before the team will need a substantial overhaul that may involve trading key assets.

CT – last year was burn out by being in the Finals and 1 cup the last 2 years. Any upset can happen anytime. Crosby & Malkin’s production decline? Are you serious or in denial and wishful thinking? They are the Trottier & Bossy of this era and just getting started. Let’s see how Pitt, NYR and Detroit do over the next 10 years and then get back to me.

The complimentary players always do better on Pitt and guys like Martin choose to play there over other teams.

NYR should be ashamed of themselves for being so bad spending so much money.

funny how tommy m and others always have to take jabs at avery’s style ( glasses and “nail polish”) and make borderline homophobic comments, but they are just haters who can’t get any girls and are jealous of the quality avery gets.

oh and btw, even “The Hockey Maven,” the GREAT Stan Fischler didn’t have any balls (along with 5 other reporters inside Shitsburgh locker during post-game interview) to ask Cindy about the slew footing… so to all the “if i was running the show” people…shut the f*ck up. Thanks.

hey who am I?
Pittsburgh is better in the standings right now! penguins have won more cups in the last 10 years! gary bettman loves Pittsburgh! The reason refs love us is because they wear black and white just like a Penguin! Not my fault the rangers wear red, white and blue. we have the chosen one, sidney crosby ( it is SIDNEY CROSBY! never just ‘crosby’) . RIGHT NOW! RIGHT NOW! RIGHT NOW! GRRRRRR. SEAN AVERY GETS CHICKS but he has style so he is ‘gay’.

Funny, not like Ranger fans were like ” Hey Pittsburgh, how come ‘ no one goes to home games’ or ‘ you guys must be tanking this season fort draft picks again!’.
hockey is cyclical. teams don’t dominate forever. duh. get over yourself and enjoy the sidney crosby-gary bettman endorsed lemonade!

Trottier and Bossy won 4 straight cups, 5 straight finals appearances. The Pens haven’t quite done that yet. Trottier’s last 100 point season was when he was 27, Bossy’s career only lasted 10 years.

Empirical data shows that many players, particularly those that start as young as Crosby and Malkin started their careers begin to see their production start to dip anywhere from 25-29. The heavy minutes, the tight checking of the playoffs, the overall rigors of the season catches up to them.

Crosby already is contributing on over 50% of the team’s scoring. That’s a lot of the team’s productivity tied to one player. In a sport where even the best players play less than half the game, a deep team without as much top end talent can be just as successful as a top heavy team. For the supposed talent gap between the two teams, the Rangers are putting up a minimal amount of less offense than the Pens.

You may recall a pretty stacked Avalanche team in a pre-cap era with Sakic and Forsberg wth Patrick Roy in net and a solid surrounding cast. They won only 2 Cups with those teams. The parity that currently exists in the league makes it extremely tough for any team to dominate for long periods of time.

CCCP – Larionov, Krutov and Makarov weren’t as good as Sid & Malkin – eat me. Then get buried.

CT Blue – nice to see some reason here. Ya know you’re right. Trottier & Bossy were the best I’ve ever seen and until Sid & Malkin prove it over time the jury is out but if anybody can maybe come close to what Boss & Trotts did it can maybe only be Gino & Sid and nobody else.

Pens will win more cups in the next 10 years but probably never be as good as the dynasty Islanders were. No team will ever win 4 cups and 19 playoff series in a row again like the Islanders did.

Yeah I was actually waiting for the moment when the Refs would find an excuse to give Sidney a free one, and it didn’t take all that long. What is almost laughable about it is that it was so obvious what they were doing.

It’s almost a disgrace to the game, one wonders why someone at league HQ isn’t made aware about it.

For a while there, Rangers looked like they were back playing Renney hockey.

Why does he keep talking about “the Money”? I thought we were under a CAP system now? What are the Pens 5 pts a head with more than 30 games left? If you would of told me we would be less than 3 wins behind the Penguins at this time in the year, I would take it every time.

People, relax, it’s ok. Tommy M is really a closet islander fan. There are allot of them around who say they are penguin fans. The last time i checked the Penguins won one cup, big deal, they won’t be in it this year either so who cares what this loser says.

How does Stan one of the greatest hockey media guys of all time not ask Crosby about the slew foot? That was a just a bad job by Stan. It’s amazing what Crosby gets away with. And was a mention ever made of which official made that phamtom call on Callahan. I think the refs should go back to wearing the names on their uniforms. Let’s have some accountability so the media and fans know which refs are decent and which ones are awful. Though most seem to be awful these days. I know this call had nothing to do with the outcome but the referering has been dreadful this season.

As shown on NHL on the Fly, Crosby committed two slew foots in the game. One on Callahan and one on Avery. On the show they showed both video clips plus the comments by Dubinsky, then discussed them. Of course they couldn’t say anything bad about Crosby, saying multiple times he is not a dirty player. It must be difficult defending someone when the evidence is right in their face. I wonder if the league will take any action on him???